Colsaria Henderson, MSW, President
Executive Director, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence
Colsaria has a Master’s in Social Work with a specification in Administration and Planning. She is from the South and considers her social justice training buried in the roots of activist parents, who dedicated their early lives to the Civil Rights Movement. She began working with anti-violence nonprofits in Kentucky in the 90s and soon shifted her work to Atlanta, Georgia. While working and studying in Atlanta, Colsaria worked with AmeriCorps members to learn and broaden their understanding of race, ethnicity, and gender equity. Colsaria continued working in anti-violence and anti-oppression work throughout undergraduate school in Atlanta. While in the South, Colsaria worked with students, faculty, and administration to draft collaborative terms and policy changes around racial and gender equity experiences of students. Since moving to California, she has held leadership roles in multiple Bay Area anti-violence nonprofits. Previous to her current work as an Executive Director of Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, she led nonprofit capacity-building with an emphasis on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Liberation. Over the last fifteen years, Colsaria has focused her work at the macro level, enjoying leadership and program development, survivor and community based evaluation and advocacy, and state-wide policy change. Colsaria has completed several leadership and advocacy programs including the Women’s Policy Institute through the Women’s Foundation of California, the Strong Field Leadership program sponsored by Blue Shield of California Foundation, Leadership for Equity & Opportunity through Rise Together, Center for Excellence in Nonprofits’ Leader’s Institute, Silicon Valley Multicultural Awards Programs, and is currently in the 2023 class of American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley CEO DIEL cohort. She leads and participates in local, statewide, and national advocacy efforts discussing anti-violence, anti-poverty, and racial justice. In addition to supporting nonprofit leadership development as a whole, she is currently focused in areas of intersection between anti-violence, racial justice, community level advocacy and prevention, and transformative justice approaches